History meets flowers. Flowers meet golf.

There are moments when you hear a story and think, how did I not know this before?  That’s how I felt when Jason shared a YouTube video which told the story of Fruitland Nurseries, and how it connects to one of the most iconic golf courses in the world.  If you know me, then you know I’m drawn to history, flowers, and foundational beauty. While this story is written in Lowville, Wisconsin, it begins in Augusta, Georgia. 

Fruitland Nurseries: Before the Fairways

Every April, the world watches The Masters Tournament unfold on the grounds of Augusta National Golf Club. For those who don’t follow golf, The Masters is one of the four major championships in professional golf — invitation-only, tradition-rich, and steeped in ritual. The winner earns the iconic Green Jacket and a permanent place in the game’s history.

But beyond the ceremony and competition, what you’re really seeing on television each spring is a garden, and that garden has a memory.  Long before fairways and meticulous greens, the land that would become this iconic golf club was a thriving nursery!

In 1857, Louis and Prosper Berckman purchased the property and named it Fruitland Nurseries. They also built Fruitland Manor, which eventually became the clubhouse at Augusta National. Fruitland Nurseries was one of the most important commercial nurseries in the American South. It specialized in fruit trees, ornamentals, and rare plants. Gardeners across the region relied on it. Back then, the land cultivated beauty, not birdies. 

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In the early 1930s, after the nursery declined, the property was purchased by legendary amateur golfer Bobby Jones and investment banker Clifford Roberts. Together, they envisioned a national golf club unlike anything else.  But here’s what matters most, and makes it special: they didn’t erase the nursery’s history; they honored it.

Each hole at Augusta National is named after a tree or flowering plant — a deliberate nod to its nursery roots.  Shrubs such as Juniper: number six, Redbud: number sixteen, and Golden Bell (forsythia) on the iconic par-3: number twelve.  Flowers are honored on number five: Magnolia, Camellia: number ten, and of course, the flower featured in the background of every broadcast, the Azalea, on hole thirteen.   The course's design features over 80,000 plants of more than 350 varieties!   It’s botanical storytelling over 18 holes.

Inspired by Authenticity

When I decided to design a Fruitland Nurseries shirt, I wanted something that felt real and original.  Buried in the corners of the internet, I found a couple of advertisements for Fruitland Nurseries to use as inspiration. 

     

One version spoke to me, featuring hand-lettering crafted with a steady hand and a broad nib. This label and handwritten font became the heartbeat of the shirt, inspired by botanical simplicity. No embellishment for the sake of embellishment. Quiet confidence, a feeling that lives on today at Augusta National. 

Here at Century Oaks, we live at the intersection of sporting fields and country fields. Golf and botanicals. Competition and cultivation. Legacy and reinvention.  Learning that Augusta National was built on the bones of a nursery — and that it intentionally preserved that identity — felt like finding a kindred spirit across time.

Not too long ago, my grandmother would look across the land and ask us, “What would YOU do with this place?” She saw opportunity, while my grandfather imagined fairways waiting to be shaped.

Fruitland Nurseries built orchards. Bobby Jones built a course.  And somewhere in between, we're building something that is meant to be.

History meets flowers. Flowers meet golf.